The Council of Europe on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia's top leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian lawmaker Maria Mezentseva reported.
Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted she was in Russian detention the following year.
European foreign ministers approved the creation of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine during a meeting in Lviv on May 9. The tribunal, which will operate under the auspices of the Council of Europe, aims to prosecute Russia's top political and military leadership, including President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine expects the tribunal to start work in 2026. The Kyiv Independent’s Kateryna Hodunova spoke with Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel about the future tribunal and its role in bringing justice for Ukraine.
Turkish officials told Bloomberg that while they don't expect Trump to visit Istanbul, they are not ruling it out, and preparations for any scenario are underway.
Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023 in connection with the activities of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was co-founded by Golos's legal predecessor, the Golos association.
Ukraine's underground storage facilities are currently using 19.4% of their capacity. Almost 32%, or 2.79 bcm, less gas is available in the storages than in the previous year, according to the estimates.
The majority of Ukrainians, 71%, do not support holding elections before a full peace deal, even in the case of a ceasefire and security guarantees, according to a poll published by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on May 14.
"He'd like me to be there, and that's a possibility. ... I don't know that he would be there if I'm not there. We're going to find out," U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Qatar, Reuters reported.
Trump has long demanded that NATO allies increase their military spending, previously calling for the alliance to raise its benchmark from 2% to 5% of GDP.
More than 1,000 Russian government entities and 1,200 private companies are involved in the economy of occupied Mariupol, a major southeastern city occupied by Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to a research paper published on May 14.
An elderly woman receives bread at a humanitarian aid distribution point in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, on Dec. 24, 2022. (Andriy Andriyenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The World Bank said that 1.8 million more Ukrainians are living in poverty than in 2020, in a report released on May 29.
The report was based on a survey conducted in collaboration with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS). It found that 9 million Ukrainians, out of a total estimated population of 32 million, were living in poverty.
While the situation is dire, the World Bank said it would be much worse if Ukraine had not received foreign aid to help pay for pensions and salaries.
"If international partners, especially the U.S., had not crowded in resources specifically tailored to these social expenditures, then there would have been three million more people in poverty," Arup Banerji, the World Bank's regional director for Eastern Europe, told Reuters.
Around 25% of Ukrainians did not have enough money to buy food at some point in June 2023, the survey found.
The loss of employment was one of the main factors leading to the increase in poverty, the World Bank said. As many as 20% of people employed before the beginning of Russia's full-scale war reported losing their jobs since February 2022.
The Ukrainian government has nonetheless been able to keep most services running, even in areas with ongoing fighting, which the World Bank said was largely due to external funding.
Banerji said that ending the war and ensuring security was the priority, but also praised the Ukrainian government for its work stabilizing the economy and maintaining essential services.
"There can be no economic prosperity or economic growth without physical security," Banerji said.
"But I've never seen a government that has done so much with so little," he added.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
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